Online application stores make applications available for download and installation. Such online application stores sometimes provide metadata regarding the applications to be downloaded. For example, such metadata may include a natural language description of an application. The metadata may also include natural language user reviews for an application, which can be provided by users through the online store or through other avenues. Online stores often provide each application with an application site that includes descriptions for the application, user reviews for the application, and additional features such as a control that can be selected for downloading and/or installing the application.
Online stores have also provided features that facilitate finding applications. Such features can be valuable, especially as the numbers of applications in some online application stores has increased dramatically in recent years. For example, online stores may provide search results in response to queries entered as user input from user profiles on the online stores.
Search engine providers outside the online stores have also included searching features to facilitate finding applications in online stores. For example, search engine providers have indexed the application sites on online stores, so that such sites can be provided in traditional Web search results. Search engines may also provide more targeted answers to application queries, which may be limited in certain respects, such as limited to applications from an online store that provides applications that are supported by the type of device from which the application query was sent. As an example, a search engine may receive and respond to a category application query, which is a query requesting a category of applications (such as a query for search applications, or flashlight applications).